How To Face Another Day
Boasting About Tomorrow
13 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." 16 As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. 17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
Bee's Thoughts:
Sometimes we pride ourselves for all our work accomplishments, all the plans we have for our career and future. Then we give many excuses for not doing what is of eternal value and instead concentrate our energy in doing things that will fade away. But the above passage clearly shows us that our life is like a mist... so what we planned to have might be gone when we are gone too.
I have heard that the only thing we can bring along with us when we go to heaven (for born-again Christians) is "relationship". For our God is a God of relationship too... the Trinity is the first relationship God has, then His relationship with us, and our relationship with each other. Therefore, we should not neglect the building of good relationship in the midst of our busyness.
A poem I like very much is If Tomorrow Never Come...
And if tomorrow never come,
You'll have no regrets about today.
These thoughts went through my mind,
We'll never know what will happen the next day.
- Bee
Dear Lord,
Thank You for reminding me that life is more than food and drink, and more than my career too. Let me build a close relationship with You and with those whom You brought into my life. May Your love be felt among us and may I live in Your will. May You be the Lord of my work and my relationship with others.
In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Tommy's Thoughts:
There is nothing wrong with planning ahead for things; in fact, it’s good to have a clear goal for our lives. But often, we tend to forget and exclude God entirely in our planning. We are so ingrained with our self-sufficiency that we confidently think we can determine and shape our future without the need of God. We put ourselves at the center of our plans.
The truth is, no matter how intelligent we may be, we’ll never be able to know what our tomorrow will bring. How things and situations might easily change everything we thought we have total control of. It is foolish to not turn to our God who holds the future securely in His hands. We need to put His desire at the center of whatever we plan for and decisions that we’ll make.
Dear Lord, thank You for reminding me of how much I need You. There are no other people or things can give me the assurance and hope like Yours. With You I have the certainty for tomorrow, the certainty of never to be disappointed. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
.......the devotion of Bee & Tommy
